Elon Musk is now the proud owner of James Bond's submarine car

Musk says he will install a Tesla drivetrain in the sub car, and 'try to make it transform for real.'

YouTube

The white Lotus Esprit amphibious sports car appears in a still from The Spy Who Loved Me.

Loading...

October 18, 2013

By Matthew Shaer

In the 1977 flick "The Spy Who Loved Me," James Bond takes a comely young KGB agent on a spin in a sporty looking Lotus sports cars. It is one of the most iconic images in any Bond film: pursued by Jaws' henchmen, Bond steers the Lotus off a dock, and into the water, where the car promptly turns into a submarine.

But after production on the movie concluded, the vehicle, which was built by Florida-based Perry Oceanographic, was mostly forgotten. According to SuperYachts.com, the car was shipped first to a storage unit on Long Island, where it remained for ten years, until the storage account became delinquent, and a local couple acquired the car in a blind auction. For the next couple decades, the Lotus remained mostly out of the spotlight.

And now it belongs to serial entrepreneur – and space flight pioneer – Elon Musk. After Jalopnik reported that Musk had purchased the car for $866K at an auction in London, Musk confirmed the details of the deal to several outlets. "I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform," Mr. Musk said in a statement obtained by CNN. "What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real."

All of this makes a certain amount of sense. After all, Musk was reportedly the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of Tony Stark – a deep-pocketed billionaire with an affinity for scientific experimentation and some quirky pastimes. Rocket ships? Sure. A colony on Mars? Let's try it. Working submarine cars? Why not?

Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy.

In fact, before this whole underwater transformer car thing, Musk was soaking up the spotlight with his plans for a Hyperloop, a so-called "fifth mode of transportation" that would zip people from Los Angeles to San Francisco – a distance of almost 400 miles – in 30 minutes.

"It would cost you much less than an air ticket – than any other mode of transport," Musk said in July. "I think we could actually make it self-powering if you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There's a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries. Yes, this is possible, absolutely."

Share this article

Link copied.

Next up

Here are more stories that look at the news with empathy, insight, and hope.